The missus and I bought a 2008 HHR SS a few months back, to replace the old, worn out Contour. It was a decent deal, with about 128k miles on it and in fairly good shape. It turned out to be a decent DD, as well. A little bit stiff in the ride, and a little noisy inside, but all in all, not bad for a sporty machine.

About a month ago, we were idling through a campground when the "high temp" light went on. The analog gauge was nearly pegged, and the digital readout was up around 250. Cranked the heat up, got it on the road, and the temps came back down nicely. While replacing the thermostat, found out the rad fan wasn't running. Disassembled and cleaned a bunch of debris and fine black dust out of the fan motor, then reassembled it all.

The car currently runs well under normal driving conditions, and even when you're railing it a bit. We can watch the temp creep up on the digital gauge when sitting at stoplights or drive thru lines, or while idling through a housing addition searching for garage sales. I've seen 230 on the digital gauge, but the analog doesn't seem to move at all.

Cooling fan is running with A/C on, and when temps are up. The coolant is full, and rad is clean and free from debris. I'm not sure what else to go with here. My first thought is to plumb a mechanical temp gauge into the heater hose, to verify temperatures, but this isn't my standard jalopy...

Hotter temps are on the way, and I spend a lot of time out on the road. I've got to have this car reliable for her while I'm gone. Besides, she might be putting on a lot of miles for work here soon...

Thanks

Paul

 

Sound sort of like the "fan module" is bad, I don't have an SS.
You have to replace the entire shroud, if not the fan.

But, have you checked the coolant level? Both looking at the bottle and opening the pressure cap (when engine is cold).

 

You need a new fan, mine did that, drove it till spring, then had to get it done.

 

Welcome to the site.

Sounds like the fan assembly. The SS fan needs to be replaced as an entire unit: fan, module, shroud. The SS unit is different from the regular HHR's, so if buying or ordering, make sure to get the correct one.

As a side thought. Check the wiring harness going to the fan assembly. I recall a thread a while back of an SS with intermittent heating issues. Seems the OP was going to replace his and found the harness had a bad or burnt connector in the harness near the fan.

Let us know what you find.

 

Is there a way to check that fan module? The fan does in fact run....both with the car running and sometimes after we park it.

I've got a few extra electric fans lying around from various projects. The one I'm thinking of was a dual fan setup from a minivan, IIRC. The motor will bolt into the shroud, and to the fan blades. Just might need a little.....custom wiring

*edit*

Coolant levels are good, it doesn't seem to be disappearing. Holds a steady temperature just under 200* on the highway. Good heat, too. Only overheats when it's warmed up, and either sitting still or barely moving.

 

Not really sure on a "how to" for testing the module.

If it's running hot at sitting still or barely moving, it sure sounds like an air flow issue. Even if the fan is working, is it pushing enough air? The fan motor may not be turning fast enough(fan module?)
Any way to get a video/sound bite of your fan running?
I know when my fan is running, it's seems to be a high whine because apparently the fan spins at some high RPM's.

 

Ive got no good way to get a video of the fan, I've really got no good way to reliably make the car act up. I live in a small town, and it's been fairly cool out....tried the other day, and didn't have any luck. The fan does run, but I didn't think it was running all that fast. Seemed to be slightly faster than my Jeep fan, on low speed. (from Lincoln towncar, with the small v-6. They've got a wicked fast little two speed fan in them, works great to cool a big inline motor while rock crawling.)

The HHR fan was completely dead. I actually dropped it, had a bunch of fine black powder fall out. I blew it all out, and then tested the fan again to find it working. I was wondering if the tolerances in the motor were gone, from the years of use.

*edit*
Just found the new fan on rockauto.com for $160 + shipping. Beats the hell out of the $300 the dealer wanted. Guess that's a bit easier to deal with, makes it not worth screwing around trying to retro fit something in there.

 

When the work they keep it perfect.